Luang Prabang

So here we are in Luang Prabang, a UNESCO World Heritage Site (the whole city) and it's absolutely beautiful. The city is charming with lots to do adventure-wise outside the city but also many beautiful restaurants and shops. The prices are a bit steep as it's quite touristy but not unmanageable and the markets have cheap eats and we've just decided that this a place to spend some dough.
We went on a mountain biking, hiking, waterfall swimming, hill tribe visit day trip which was very fun and a good way to see the towns and mountains. Our guide was a really nice guy from a neighboring village. The waterfall was amazing and perfect for swimming which, after our hike and bike, was a really welcome treat . . . as was the Beer Lao we enjoyed after our dip!

Yesterday, I took a weaving class which was about the coolest thing I've done on the trip so far. There were two of us in the class (me and one other girl Jiada, 21 from NYC and a graphic designer - we became good friends and continued to hang out after class) and we arrived at a beautiful weaving center on the river with open air buildings, one for their dyeing, one for the weavers working there, one for weaving lessons and one main building with weavings for sale, information about how silk is made and dyed and a lunch table overlooking the Mekong.
First we had tea and were guided through the silk worm to silk process as well as the dyeing. Then to the dyeing house where we picked three colors to dye with the natural ingredients. I chopped turmeric finely and mashed it with a mortar and pestle and boiled it to make a brilliant yellow and used nettle seeds to make an orange.
It was then time to pick our colors for weaving and spool the silk. The spooling involved sitting on a tiny stool in front of two wheels made of bamboo and rope. The silk skein was wrapped around one and then hang cranked onto small spools by hand.
Then lunch - delicious laap (minced pork salad with mint, basil and garlic - very popular in Laos), sticky rice and vegetables. For dessert, a fruit that looks vaguely like a nut which you peel and is like a peeled grape with a pit on the inside. Sort of like leechees I guess.
Then some down time. Laotians seem to love their rest time. Then we hit the looms. The looms are large wooden and bamboo contraptions that you sit in. I couldn't begin to explain the complexity of the machine but basically there are peddles and about a billion threads going every-which-way and you pass a wooden spool holder called a shuttle through them all. VERY complicated and clearly takes a master to do the weavings I've been seeing. We each had one woman, no English, showing us how to weave. Once I got the hang of it, I really really enjoyed the process but I don't think I'll quit my day job; it's pretty exhausting.
The class was great and we ended the day by both crashing Kyle's cooking class to help eat with everyone at the class. Really fun and great food!
A couple o' drinks around town with Jiada and Kyle and to bed for one more day of adventuring in Luang Prabang before heading south.